My head hurts. It happened sometime in the middle of the day, and eased up when I took painkillers WITH sinus medication, but now it's settled into my right eye and focus has become difficult, what with all the itching and watering. Not a good way to start vacation.

But before the headache arrived, I managed to get a lot of things done I needed to do today -- I washed all my "delicate" things (all those shirts that say "dry clean only" or "wash separate, delicate cycle) and got them ironed out and hung back up, got to the bank, did a little grocery shopping, then re-organized my dresser area, although I haven't finished that yet. I FINALLY hemmed the pants I had which were too long even with high heels, then whipped up some beef ribs for dinner and did a little more editing (down to 236,101 words for those keeping score), wrote a few review blurbs for the "best box sets" article for About, and cleared away the old utensils in the kitchen for the new pretty KitchenAid ones rahirah bought me.

Tomorrow we're heading north to take the Camp Verde rail trip, which winds through the Verde Valley, then back home for a quiet gathering and gift exchange with sillymagpie, who will travel north with us.

I just finished reading two books, which was basically one book that was split into two, and I mention it largely because it WAS one book split into two, and it made me think of my own situation because of that fact. She (the author) was able to break it in half without too much trouble, but I think it was actually padded into two books with an =ENTIRELY POINTLESS= subplot in an already VERY busy story with many many characters, and while I realize it wasn't her first book, I felt the cold chilly hand of jealous annoyance while reading it. I wish I knew where I could split my own original manuscript in two easily without having the first one feel incomplete (the first "climax" doesn't happen early enough in the story to serve as the "finale" of a hypothetical first book).

I hope some of that big Pacific storm actually gets over the mountains to us. They're not being very reassuring about it. "There might actually be some precipitation on Saturday and/or Monday. Maybe." I don't think it's rained here significantly since, what, June?

At least the wind may clear the air. It's getting to the point where I think they should say "it's safe to breathe outside" rather than issuing a pollution advisory.